The Missing Goodbye Girl Scene
by storymom
Summary: This is my submission to the TWoP missing scene challenge. Yep, a month late, but I'm going with 'better late then never'.


Ryan looked up at all the faces staring down at him as he floated in the pool. His eyes quickly locked on Sandy's. Ryan couldn't tell by the look, but he guessed that Sandy was probably pissed which meant yet another 'talk' about Ryan's fighting.

As Ryan swam to the side of the pool and climbed out, he was quickly met by Caleb. "You again. Do you like ruining parties or something?"

Ryan looked down at his feet unsure of what to say besides, "Sorry, Mr. Nichol."

"Honestly, Mr. Nichol, it wasn't Ryan's fault." Teresa said, coming quickly to Ryan's defense. But when Caleb only grunted at Teresa, Luke added, "Its true, Mr. Nichol. Ryan stopped some guy from crashing the party."

"Guy? What guy?" Caleb demanded as the audience of Newpsies gathered around waiting for some bits of juicy gossip about the Chino kid.

Ryan opened his mouth to say something, but Luke spoke first. "I don't know who he was. Just some guy, obviously here to crash the party. Ryan stopped him before he could ruin your night or do anything to hurt someone." 

Caleb's eyes narrowed as he glared at Ryan, "Is that true?"

Ryan glanced over at Teresa. It was at least partially true; he did stop Eddie from hurting Teresa. "Something like that," he mumbled. 

Caleb turned towards the crowd, "Okay, ladies and gentlemen, the show's over. Please accept our apologizes for the interruption. It seems we had a party crasher, but don't worry, it's all been taken care of. Please, continue to enjoy yourselves." Caleb turned one last time and glared at Ryan, just to let him know that he doubted Ryan's story but would let it go, for now, and then disappeared into the crowd. The Newpsies began to disperse as well, already bored and uninterested since there was apparently nothing more to the story. Luke gave Ryan a quick slap on his shoulder before escorting Marissa away, leaving Ryan and Teresa alone to face Sandy and Kirsten.

"I'm sorry." Ryan knew he was repeating himself, but it seemed the easiest way to start the inevitable conversation.

Sandy nodded as he put his arm around Ryan's shoulder and began to guide him toward the house. "Why don't we take this inside, so we can discuss it privately, away from the party."

Ryan tried to pull away and turn towards the pool house. "Um, can I just change first?" But Sandy just tightened his grip on Ryan's shoulder. "No, I think we should discuss this now. We need to know if there is something we need to worry about."  
  
"Besides," Kirsten added, "I want to get some ice on your eye." Ryan sighed and lowered his head as he allowed Sandy to continue to guide him into the living room. When he heard the sound of heavy breathing from behind him, he turned quickly and noticed Teresa. She looked so scared, and Ryan realized she had no clue what to expect during a Cohen conversation. Ryan shrugged his shoulders, and then smiled at her, just to let her know it was different here. The Cohens were different, and there wasn't anything to worry about. 

As they all entered the house, they found Seth coming through the living room carrying some towels and a big smirk on his face. "Ry, man, you really do like making a splash at these things, now don't you?"

Ryan simply glared as he grabbed one of the towels so he could at least attempt to dry himself off. 

"Seth," Kirsten said. "Go in the kitchen and make an ice pack for Ryan. Now, please."

Seth turned towards the kitchen, only to be met by Summer. "So, was that the same guy that was at the student center the other day?"

"Yeah," Seth said. "I warned him big scary guy would hurt him if he wasn't careful."

Ryan could only lower his head and sigh again. Just great, he thought as he turned to face Sandy and Kirsten again. He knew if he heard Seth and Summer, then they did, too.

The looks on both their faces told him that they did in fact hear, and the conversation was about to get a whole lot longer.

"Why don't we all sit down?" Sandy's tone was polite, but firm.

"But I'm all wet," Ryan tried again, hoping to be able to change out of his wet suit, but Sandy just said, "Sit." His tone was no longer polite, just firm.

Ryan peeled off his jacket and undid his tie as he sat down. "I'm sorry," he said again.

"You said that already," Sandy said. "I'd rather hear something else now."

"Like what?" Ryan wasn't really sure where he should start. He wanted to give them as little information as possible, since a lot of it was personal, but he doubted that would be possible.

"Like what was big scary guy doing here? Why was he beating you up? When was he at the student center? Why didn't we know anything about him until now? Why is he threatening to kill you? Need I go on?" Sandy shot so many questions at such a rapid pace that it took Ryan a minute to realize he'd stopped talking and it was now Ryan's turn to talk. 

"Um," Ryan started. "Big scary guy is Eddie. He came to talk to Teresa. I didn't like the way he was grabbing her, so he and I, uh, got into it. Sorry. He was at the student center the other day. It was no big deal. He came to talk, that's all. He didn't want to fight or anything like that."

"So what changed?" Kirsten asked, and when Ryan looked at her blankly, she added, "Why does he want to kill you now, if all he wanted to do was talk the other day? And why didn't he just call you on the phone to talk? Why come all the way from Chino just to talk?"

"He did call, but I didn't take the call," was all Ryan wanted to say.

"Ryan," Teresa spoke for the first time. "Do you think Eddie found out about last night?"

"What about last night?" Kirsten and Sandy said in unison.

Ryan's "Nothing" was said too quickly and the look on both his and Teresa's faces told Sandy and Kirsten all they needed to know about the night before. They were not very happy about it. Seth momentarily saved them all from any further embarrassment when he finally returned with Ryan's ice pack. "Here. Hope it's big enough to cover that bruise."

Ryan could only nod as he took the ice pack from Seth and put it down on his lap. He really wanted this conversation to come to an end. He was sitting in the chair in soggy shorts trying desperately not to have to explain sleeping over at Teresa's the night before. 

"Seth," Kristen said. "Please go outside and make sure none of the guests needs anything. And make sure none of them come in looking for us. We'll be out in a little while. Ryan, the ice pack goes on your face."

Both boys nodded at Kirsten's no nonsense tone. Ryan put the ice pack to his eye, and Seth led Summer out to rejoin the party, although he knew the real fun was in the living room, watching Ryan explain himself to the 'rents.

Sandy waited until Seth and Summer had left the living room before continuing. "Okay. So Eddie is upset about nothing, but still comes here to see you and Teresa and cause some trouble. If that's the case, then I'll go call the police now. Teresa, I will need to contact your mother for consent to file a restraining order on your behalf."

"No, Sandy..." Ryan started to say as he quickly looked at Teresa. She still looked really scared and hesitated for a moment before she said, "No, really, Mr. Cohen. That won't be necessary. Eddie is just upset. I broke up with him and he wanted to talk about it. There's no need for a restraining order. He wouldn't hurt me, I promise." She looked quickly at Ryan, but then looked down at her hands, not exactly sure how much to tell them about Eddie.

"Are you sure?" Sandy asked. "I'm already filing one restraining order, it won't be any further trouble to file one on your behalf as well."

It took Ryan a second to process what Sandy was saying. One restraining order? File another? Crap, Ryan thought, the lawyer in him was in full mode. "No, Sandy, really. You don't... I don't want... It's okay, I promise." 

"No, Ryan, it's not okay," Sandy said. "That kid came here and attacked you. I don't want him coming to my house or to your school or anywhere near you."  
  
"But I don't want to file a restraining order," Ryan grumbled.

"You forget, Ryan, that I don't need your consent to file one." Sandy looked at Ryan, watched the way he slumped down in the chair and rolled his eyes. Well, his one eye, since his other was behind the ice pack. "Okay, then explain to me why I shouldn't file one, why I shouldn't call the police. And I do mean explain everything. From the start."

"From the start," Ryan mumbled as he sat up and leaned forward, hoping to sound convincing. "Okay. Teresa told Eddie the other night that she wanted to stay here in Newport for a while, to think things through. Eddie didn't like it too much, so he came to school to ask if Teresa and I had, um, been together. We didn't talk too much because he got thrown out by one of the teachers."

Ryan looked over at Teresa, who was still looking down at her hands. She looked so embarrassed, and Ryan knew he was about to make her feel even more uncomfortable. 

He sighed again before shifting in his seat. He was slowly drying, but still very uncomfortable in his wet clothes, especially his soggy underwear and squashy socks and shoes.

Ryan looked directly at Sandy as he tried to explain the next part. He really didn't want to be discussing this with Kirsten. "I went to Teresa's last night to talk to her, just like you and I discussed. But, um, we ended up not exactly talking. And I guess Eddie must know about that somehow. So anyway, he came here tonight to try to get Teresa to come with him, and that's about it."

"But how did he know where we lived?" Kirsten asked, thankfully skipping the part about him and Teresa not talking the night before.

Ryan shrugged. "Trey, I guess. Tonight wasn't exactly the first time he was here."

When he saw the looks from both, Ryan knew to continue quickly. "He came to see me right after Teresa first came. He was looking for her. He mentioned seeing Trey, so I guess Trey told him where I was. It's not a secret where I live, is it?" 

"No, of course it's not a secret," Sandy told him. "But it shouldn't have been a secret that he came to see you. Here or at school. Unless you were afraid of him, in which case..."

"No, Sandy," Ryan interrupted, "I wasn't afraid of him. I'm still not. Yeah, Eddie was mad, and yeah, we had a fight. But he's been mad at me before, and this isn't exactly our first fight. He'll get over it."

Kirsten looked at Teresa first before saying, "But I would imagine this time it's different. I mean, this fight was over something a little more, well ... personal."

Ryan could only glance at Kirsten for a split second before looking over at Teresa. "Um, not really. This isn't. I mean, we've kind of had a similar fight like this in the past. It's okay, really."

Sandy and Kirsten exchanged looks before Sandy asked, "So you're telling me that if you had to go down to Chino tomorrow, you wouldn't be worried about Eddie?"

"Tomorrow? No, I don't think I could go to Chino tomorrow. But in a couple of weeks, then yes, I could go back to Chino and not worry about Eddie." Ryan knew that wasn't completely the truth. Yes, he could go back to Chino, but he knew he'd probably get his ass kicked again. But Ryan really wasn't worried about it. He was more worried about restraining orders and police than he was about Eddie kicking his ass. That was something he was used to. He wasn't used to going to the police or to the courts for help.

Sandy realized from the way Ryan slumped back in the chair, with his good eye shut and the ice pack over his bruised eye that Ryan really wanted to be done talking about what happened.

So Sandy decided on another tactic as he turned to Teresa. "You're not afraid of Eddie either, I suppose? He's never hurt you? Never hit you?"

When Teresa wouldn't look at Sandy or Kirsten or even Ryan, Sandy continued, "Teresa, you can tell us. We can help you."

"Sandy," Ryan said, with a noticeably edge to his voice, "It's not like that. Not everyone in Chino is abusive. There are actually some decent people there. Eddie was mad. We had a fight, that's it. Okay?"

Sandy thought about it for a moment before coming to the conclusion that it would probably be for the best if he didn't pursue it any further. He wasn't happy about it. He knew there was more to the story than what had been said. There was something Teresa wasn't telling them, Sandy could just sense that, but Ryan wanted to drop it. So he'd drop it, for now.

"_Oh, that's gonna be quite a shiner, but hey," Sandy said as he patted Ryan's leg a couple of times. "They look good on you."_

_  
Ryan could only smirk as he said, "Yeah? Thanks."_

_  
Teresa finally spoke, but her voice was filled with so much sorrow. "I'm so sorry. About everything."_

"_Its okay, sweetie," Kirsten said, trying to comfort her. "It's not your fault."_

"_Hey, I heard there was a rumble in the bedroom. I'm gonna go and break it up." Sandy announced as he got up, with Kirsten following behind him. _

There was nothing more they could say at that point. All they could do was hope for the best, and hope Ryan was telling the truth about Eddie.


End file.
